Click images for desktop size: "Foundation" by Rodney Matthews One of the worst parts of some chemo or radiation treatments is if all your hair falls out.
Its unnerving. It disarms you and leaves you feeling defenseless against the coming onslaughts.
I thought about that when I was down by the train tracks. I was going to crush pennies. See if I could remember why, when I was a kid, crushing pennies under train tracks had seemed so special.
I liked the way the pennies would get all flat and retain just a slight memory of what a penny used to look like. It never worked on nickels or dimes. I never tried it on a quarter. Too much money to a kid for experimenting. Too much money for me now to throw away.
I'm sure you've done it. You line some coins up on the rail and wait for a train. Then you shudder and grit your teeth while the train wheels ka-clop over your little trap. After it passes you search between the ties for the squashed metal.
You never told your mom about this flattened treasure. She;d kill you if she knew you were playing on the train tracks . . . again.